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Uniquely South Whidbey Trade Fair canceled

Organizers of the third annual Uniquely South Whidbey Trade Fair announced Thursday that the event has been indefinitely postponed.

Ed Field, port manager for the Port of South Whidbey, a major sponsor of the trade fair, said the event did not attract enough vendors to go forward.

The event had been planned for Saturday, Sept. 17 and Sunday, Sept. 18 at Bayview Community Hall.

Though registration for interested businesses had been extended a few days past the Aug. 18 deadline, not enough exhibitors signed up to make the trade fair feasible.

"We only had 10 commitments as of our cutoff date," Field said.

"It had not caught fire enough," he added. "There wasn't enough interest to justify putting everyone through the two days."

A new date for the trade fair has not been set.

"We do expect to get it back together. We're regrouping and we do expect to relaunch it, whether it's later this year or next year," Field said.

The timing was bad for organizing the event, and hosting the event.

The port is between finance managers at the moment, Field said, and the trade fair also conflicted with two other major events on the same weekend - the Whidbey Island Farm Tour and Langley's Soup Box Derby.

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